Zia's second five-year term ends in October, and the country's next parliamentary elections are to be held no later than January. It's going to be tough for her conservative coalition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which faces stiff competition from the centrist and secular Awami League. Zia has faced escalating criticism over the past year because of shortages of power and water, rising prices and an unstable security environment, due to back-to-back suicide bomb attacks in the country's southern and central regions, as well as nationwide protests. —Tatiana Serafin

Published sources include the women's official biographies, Factiva, International Who's Who of 2005, Marquis Who's Who, World Almanac of Famous People, Palgrave Who's Who 2005, the Congressional Yellow Book, the Judicial Yellow Book, Europa World Year Book, Hoover's Online, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, World Economic Forum, the World Book Encyclopedia. Rankings generated by combining various financial figures with other media and biography metrics; global media mentions from Factiva.

Stock quotes are delayed at least 15 minutes for Nasdaq, at least 20 minutes for NYSE/AMEX.
U.S. indexes are delayed at least 15 minutes with the exception of Nasdaq, Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 which are 2 minutes delayed.